The Clostridial neurotoxins are a family of structurally similar proteins that target the neuronal machinery for synaptic vesicle exocytosis. Produced by anaerobic bacteria of the Clostridium genus, botulinum neurotoxins (“BoNT”s, seven immunologically distinct subtypes, A-G) and Tetanus neurotoxin (“TeNT”) are the most poisonous substances known on a per-weight basis, with an LD50 in the range of 0.5-2.5 ng/kg when administered by intravenous or intramuscular routes (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, “Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (R-TECS),” Cincinnati, Ohio: National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (1996)). BoNTs target cholinergic nerves at their neuromuscular junction, inhibiting acetylcholine release and causing peripheral neuromuscular blockade (Simpson, “Identification of the Major Steps in Botulinum Toxin Action,” Annu. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol. 44:167-193 (2004)). BoNT serotypes A, B, and E are considered to represent the most significant threat to military and civilian populations, particularly because they can be aerosolized and delivered by inhalation (Amon et al., “Botulinum Toxin as a Biological Weapon: Medical and Public Health Management,” JAMA 285:1059-1070 (2001)).
Though much work has been done to develop vaccines or antidotes which are effective against poisoning with Clostridial neurotoxins, the effectiveness of available products is limited because the available inactivated toxin preparations do not optimally mimic the native toxin. No therapeutic antidotes or vaccines have been approved for widespread use, though some preparations are available for limited use under specific circumstances. The NIAID Biodefense Research Agenda has identified the development of countermeasures against Clostridial neurotoxins as one of its most pressing goals (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, “NIAID Biodefence Research Agenda for CDC category A Agents” NIH Publication #03-5308 (2002)). A prime target is understanding and preventing neurotoxin entry into target cells. Immunological approaches have utilized passive protection via injection of antibodies as antitoxins, or active immunization via vaccination with toxoids, toxins chemically or genetically transformed to render them non-toxic but still immunogenic (Ramon et al., “Sur L′ immunization Antitetanique et sur la Production de L'antitoxine Tetanique,” Compt. Rend. Soc. Biol. 93:508-598 (1925)). Antibody-based anti-toxins are available in limited quantities, but no protective vaccine against Clostridial neurotoxins has been approved. A pentavalent botulinum toxoid (ABCDE), consisting of toxins inactivated by temperature or cross-linked with formaldehyde, is available in limited quantities, and has been shown to induce antibodies in laboratory workers and military personnel (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, “NIAID Biodefence Research Agenda for CDC category A Agents. Progress Report,” NIH Publication #03-5435 (2003)). An inactivated heavy chain toxoid administered by inhalation was found to protect animals against inhaled toxin doses 104 times the LD50 (Park et al., “Inhalational Poisoning by Botulinum Toxin and Inhalation Vaccination with Its Heavy-Chain Component,” Infect. Immun. 71:1147-1154 (2003)). An investigational heptavalent antitoxin (A-G reactive, equine origin) against BoNT is being developed by the U.S. Department of Defense and is now being tested. Initial data demonstrate the general safety of this antitoxin, though it displays some cross-species reactogenicity in humans. Another investigational BoNT anti-toxin is based on a combination of three recombinant monoclonal antibodies, which neutralize BoNT A with a high potency (Nowakowski et al., “Potent Neutralization of Botulinum Neurotoxin by Recombinant Oligoclonal Antibody,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99:11346-11350 (2002)). Development and testing of human monoclonal antibodies to BoNT B-G is also currently in progress and supported by NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, “NIAID Biodefence Research Agenda for CDC category A Agents. Progress Report,” NIH Publication #03-5435 (2003)).
Several laboratories are attempting to develop recombinant Clostridial toxin genes or fragments thereof. The Department of Defense has developed a vaccine based on expression of the receptor-binding domain of the BoNT A heavy chain (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, “NIAID Biodefence Research Agenda for CDC Category A Agents. Progress Report,” NIH Publication #03-5435 (2003); Byrne et al., “Purification, Potency, and Efficacy of the Botulinum Neurotoxin Type A Binding Domain from Pichia pastoris as a Recombinant Vaccine Candidate,” Infect. Immun. 66:4817-4822 (1998); and Pless et al., “High-Affinity, Protective Antibodies to the Binding Domain of Botulinum Neurotoxin Type A,” Infect. Immun. 69:570-574 (2001)). A similar approach with a recombinant BoNT F fragment expressed in Salmonella typhimurium was found to provide partial protection of animals against the toxin (Foynes et al., “Vaccination Against Type F Botulinum Toxin Using Attenuated Salmonella enterica var Typhimurium Strains Expressing the BoNT/F HC Fragment,” Vaccine 21:1052-1059 (2003)). A catalytically active non-toxic derivative of BoNT A expressed in E. coli was reported to induce toxin-neutralizing antibodies and protect animals from a BoNT challenge (Chaddock et al., “Expression and Purification of Catalytically Active, Non-Toxic Endopeptidase Derivatives of Clostridium botulinum Toxin Type A,” Protein Expr. Purif. 25:219-228 (2002)). A catalytically inactive, full-length derivative of BoNT C expressed in E. coli was immunogenic in mice, though limitations of this system hinder expression of full-length native and active recombinant toxin (Kiyatkin et al., “Induction of an Immune Response by Oral Administration of Recombinant Botulinum Toxin,” Infect. Immun. 65:4586-4591 (1997)). Rummel et al. (“Synaptotagmins I and II Act as Nerve Cell Receptors for Botulinum Neurotoxin G,” J. Biol. Chem. 279:30865-30870 (2004) (“Rummel I”)) and Rummel et al. (“The Hcc-domain of Botulinum Neurotoxins A and B Exhibit a Singular Ganglioside Binding Site Displaying Serotype-Specific Carbohydrate Interaction,” Mol. Microbiol. 51:631-643 (2004) (“Rummel II”), report full-length BoNT A, B, and G neurotoxins expressed in an E. coli from plasmids encoding the respective full-length genes. Rummel I and Rummel II also report several derivatives of BoNT genes. The neurotoxins described in Rummel I and Rummel II are active only at very high concentrations. This is likely due to the fact that the neurotoxins expressed by Rummel I and Rummel II are denatured during expression, extraction, and purification from E. coli and achieve low physiological activity of the single chain BoNT propeptide due to improper disulfide bonding. Thus, although Rummel I and Rummel II may in fact have produced full-length recombinant BoNT peptides of serotypes A, B, and G, the properties of the neurotoxins described do not possess native structures and physiological activity.
The widely used E. coli expression system may be problematic for some proteins, because the E. coli cytosol may not provide the non-reducing environment needed for maintenance of disulfide bridges critical to the native toxin structure (Alberts et al., Molecular Biology of the Cell, Third Edition, Garland Publishing Inc., 112, 113, 488, 589). In addition, E. coli based expression systems also present practical problems associated with endotoxin removal. These limitations emphasize the importance of selecting an expression system capable of producing recombinant molecules that retain the native toxin structure and biological activity.
Data from multiple laboratories suggest that the C-terminal moiety of Clostridial toxin heavy chains (“Hc”), or the intact heavy chain (“HC”) expressed or prepared by reduction/denaturation from native toxins, are functionally altered and therefore require a ˜10,000-fold molar excess to delay the onset of toxin-induced paralysis (Li et al., “Recombinant Forms of Tetanus Toxin Engineered for Examining and Exploiting Neuronal Trafficking Pathways,” J. Biol. Chem. 276:31394-31401 (2001); Lalli et al., “Functional Characterization of Tetanus and Botulinum Neurotoxins Binding Domains,” J. Cell Sci. 112:2715-2724 (1999)). Some of these preparations have been completely inactive in this assay (Daniels-Holgate et al., “Productive and Non-Productive Binding of Botulinum Neurotoxin A to Motor Nerve Endings are Distinguished by Its Heavy Chain,” J. Neurosci. Res. 44:263-271 (1996)). The low efficiency of HC and Hc may be due to either their increased binding affinity to non-productive sites on cells normally mediating toxin trafficking or their conformational differences from the native toxin which results in a low binding affinity for the specific binding sites at the target cells. In either case, incorrect folding, altered post-translational modification, a requirement for the N-terminal portion of the molecule (Koriazova et al., “Translocation of Botulinum Neurotoxin Light Chain Protease through the Heavy Chain Channel,” Nat. Struct. Biol. 10:13-18 (2003)), or multiple other changes, may be responsible for these functionally important deficiencies. These facts suggest that the currently available preparations of BoNT or its derivatives are poor mimics of the native toxin, which may limit their therapeutic potential.
The methods currently available to produce inactivated derivatives of BoNTs as vaccines or antidotes to BoNT poisoning have met with limited success. This can be due to several factors. First, the methods used to inactivate BoNT prepared from Clostridial cultures are harsh, and may alter the toxin's native conformation in ways that may influence its immunogenicity or trafficking and absorption. Second, methods based on producing recombinant toxins have thus far only succeeded in producing either inactive toxin molecules or fragments of its protein domains. In both cases, the recombinant molecules produced are by definition significantly different from native toxin, particularly with respect to post-translational processing and disulfide bonding. Though inactivated toxins and toxin fragments have been shown to be immunogenic, the pool of polyclonal antibodies they generate will include a fraction recognizing epitopes present only on misfolded toxins.
Another area in which Clostridial neurotoxins have been extensively studied relates to their clinical use to treat dystonias, and to temporarily correct aesthetic defects in skin. These indications are specific to the neurotoxins produced by strains of Clostridium botulinum (BoTox), because they can be used at extremely small doses to locally paralyze specific muscles and thereby achieve therapeutic goals. All of the current products used for this indication are produced from Clostridial cultures, and there have been no reports of an active BoTox molecule produced using any type of genetic engineering technology.
A further area of interest is derived from the ability of Clostridial neurotoxins to pass undegraded through epithelial barriers via transcytosis, and specifically target nervous tissue. This has led to suggestions that Clostridial neurotoxins can be used to enable oral and inhalational carriers for therapeutic agents that cannot normally be delivered via these routes of administration, and delivery vehicles which can specifically target the peripheral and central nervous system.
The present invention is directed to overcoming these and other limitations in the art.